Book Pile: August 2016

This past weekend provided some solid gains in the roleplaying department – and explain why I never post much in the thread about resisting purchases.

I got a dinged copy of 13th Age from Games Lore because I have heard so many positive things and had two good games. I couldn’t not buy it for £20 including postage. It almost seemed rude.

I have played this twice with Guy Milner – who runs a great game with fantastic bursts of compelling enthusiasm. I love Pelgrane for all the GUMSHOE goodness. And I have read so much good stuff. If nothing else, I would hope to find ways to adopt and adapt elements to other games I run. Failing that, it looks nice!

When it arrived on Friday, I also got Lone Wolf: Heroes of Magnamund come through from Cubicle 7, the second physical reward from Lone Wolf. It looks gorgeous, but I would never expect anything less.

I used the PDF for one of the games I ran at Seven Hills, so the physical book has been slow coming – and the whole KS remains glacial. I like the book and I enjoyed running the stuff out of the PDF – because it makes for a much more interesting group game when everyone isn’t a Kai initiate in the Lone Wolf vein.

Out of the box, Lone Wolf offers a very basic game – for a very reasonable price; but, you need a bit more to make it feel like anything more than a one-off or an introductory game for younger players. Having used Heroes to run a game, I feel it makes all the difference.

On Saturday, at Britcon Day #1 with All Rolled Up, I picked up The Force Awakens Beginner Game for the Star Wars game from Fantasy Flight.

I spotted this going for just over £20 – and it comes with the fancy dice that sell separately for £8 or more. I had noticed it the week before somewhere else, but £5 higher. I’m an idiot for buying new stuff, but I still have a budget!

I wanted to see what they might have tweaked for the setting of the new film… and when I get a chance to read it I’ll find out! I have enjoyed all the games I have run with this system. I continue to love the dice mechanic that drives the crunch and story alike. I know that this divides people, but I definitely lean toward the like it side – and this has BB-8 in it.

Finally, on Sunday, at Britcon Day #2, I had my eye on a wargame called Beyond the Gates of Antares, written by Rick Priestley (who wrote the original version of Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader, back in the Olden Days of Yore) and published by Warlord Games. They had a stall directly across from us and the book just stared at me the whole weekend.

This is a wargame, written with a variant of Warlord’s Bolt Action system. However, I love the original WH40K setting and Rick has a great rep in my opinion. The game had a thickish background section and a narrative scenario section – and a supplement… and I just had a good feeling about it.

Last time I had a ‘good feeling’ about something I picked up The Black Hack and I picked up Symbaroum – and both of those good feelings panned out pretty well.

I have a mind to pillage the background – and elements of the rules – to run as a roleplaying thing later in the year. I might even consider running this with my own 214 system, but we’ll see how the reading goes.